Duke - Marvel: 1963

Raphael Duke, chronic amnesiac ex-angel of unknown provenance, a gardener of strange things, a healer, an archer, and a traveller. He drives a sinister-looking de Ville convertible, in blue, with a pair of horns affixed to the hood. To the untrained eye, they look like a bull's horns. Closer inspection suggests they aren't from anything on Earth.

Raphael has no idea that he's an angel. He knows he's not normal, that his blood can heal people, that he can heal himself and others with the plants he cultivates both in the Other Garden and on Earth, that he has a weird knack for chemistry, that he's been dead before, that his car is possessed, and that he can see time. No, wait. That's just the drugs, that last one.

Like most Monotheistic Angels in Marvel, Raphael began his existence in the extra-dimensional realm of Heaven and was assigned to rule the Garden of Eden. When the Garden was cut off from the other realms as punishment for human disobedience, Raphael refused to leave because he disagreed with cutting the mortal realms off from the gifts of Eden. What was its purpose if not to feed and heal the needy? For his refusal, he was stripped of his powers and left in the Garden when it was consigned to destruction — his place was given to a new Raphael who became an Archangel. "Raphael Duke" are the two words that best reflect what little Raphael subconsciously knows of his essential self.

Raphael managed to survive in a fragment of Eden that lodged between planes of Hell as a pocket dimension. He lived there some unknown period of time before a nameless blue demon traveling between planes accidentally teleported into the Garden. Raphael leapt onto the demon's back and was carried with it out into the Sonoran desert purely by chance during the demon's panicked attempt to flee. There, he fought the demon and bound it into the body of a wild horse. He named it for its blue colour, from the Nahuatl: Texotic, giving Tex its name. Over the centuries, he and Tex have come to a reluctant truce that allows him to travel between realms by riding or driving his possessed creature.

Coz is a yellow dog, the first creature Raphael healed on the mortal plane after rescuing it from being torn apart by coyotes and so maintains a special bond with Raphael. This is not Coz' first body, his spirit has passed from dog to dog over the years. The Nahuatl word for yellow is Coztic, giving Coz his name. Over the years, he has become increasingly intelligent and aware. While not of human intellect, he does have basic reasoning and, like most animals, is highly interested in protecting his territory and negotiating beneficial exchanges with those he interacts with.

Tex and Coz received the last scraps of Raphael's inherent holiness, as they were the first creatures he interacted with after being stripped of his gifts. This is the source of their bond with him and their unusual qualities. Coz and Tex will seek Raphael out if he's 'killed' but it may take them a long time to find him again. He will recognize them and accept them but not know why he knows them. Tex and Coz, however, remember Raphael.

ANGELLIC: Raphael was originally an angel and his essential self has not changed even though his holy abilities are gone.
- BLESSED: Raphael can heal from injury within days, with the exception of his sacrifice. Regenerating limbs can take a year or more. Any pain relief will interfere with his ability to heal. Prayer — directed mental energy from another person — accelerates his healing. He is four times as strong as an average human and durable enough to withstand falling five stories or being hit by a car without significant injury. He has much less resistance to piercing/cutting/burning injuries. He can starve, die of thirst, freeze, and suffocate, among other things. He feels pain but can endure it because he doesn't experience it as a danger to his existence.
- ETERNAL: Raphael is functionally immortal, outside of injury, because he doesn't age. If he's 'killed', he loses all his knowledge and his mortal body and starts over in the Sonoran desert with no knowledge and no memory at all, which is much the same as dying. He doesn't always make it out of the desert on the first try, which can hold him up for years.
- SACRIFICE: Raphael's blood is a universal panacea and healer, his organs can't be rejected except by demons and undead. However, he suffers from the loss of his blood and organs and he loses his usual regenerative strength when he deprives himself this way — the power of his regeneration goes with his flesh when he makes that sacrifice until he heals at a human rate. He can 'die' this way. Raphael's blood can be diluted with water to feed his plants and enhance their qualities. Likewise, this forces him to regenerate blood normally.
- OMNIGLOT: Raphael understands everyone and everyone understands him. He doesn't speak any one language though he has success — with effort — deliberately reproducing words in English since it's the common language around him at the moment. He could not write something in Korean or French, for example. He can write or speak with direction, though, specifically allowing his meaning to be understood by a single person or a group that has a common link or faith — that link does not always protect the message from being intercepted by opponents as they may still share the link somehow. Machine generated cyphers and computer programming are nearly impossible for him. His communication with animals is limited.
- EDENIC: Raphael has an ancient connection to the Garden of Eden that allows him a deep, supernatural understanding of chemistry and biology, particularly the specialties of botany and pharmacology. He is capable of 'seeing' chemical structures and knowing how they will interact with human physiology.

COZ: The junk yard's dog, a huge yellow mastiff. Coz is an excellent judge of character and seems to know basic math. He can be left in charge of the till if you help yourself. He will know if you underpaid. Coz also seems capable of watching security cameras and operating the front gate.
DIO'S SCRAP YARD: Raphael runs a junk yard where he sorts trash, recycles things, crushes cars, tends Tex, and makes drugs. Raphael raises chickens and a couple goats, just in case he needs to go somewhere in a hurry and Tex is being difficult. Among the trash, he also cultivates plants of all kinds for food and medicine his Earthly garden. One of the sheds on the property has a bomb shelter below it. It's on the ground floor that Raphael keeps Tex and below where he brews his drugs. He doesn't remember how he got the junk yard, someone gave it to him at some point years ago out of gratitude for his help.
REPUTATION: Raphael has something of a good reputation in the magical community and the underground markets as a source of healing, medication, and rare herbs. His junkyard has also provided refuge in the past. He rarely asks for money but will barter for his services.
TEX: Raphael can "teleport" by way of travelling through the various planes of Hell thanks to Tex, his self-aware, temperamental car. Tex is possessed by some kind of spirit but Raphael doesn't remember why or how. At one point, Tex was a horse but no one rides those around anymore. Raphael may drive but Tex chooses the route and, sometimes, the destination. Tex doesn't just take gas, it takes sacrifices to travel the roads of Hell. That doesn't mean animals, necessarily, but a chicken will get you a long way. Tex also accepts candles, incense, prayer, food, flowers, blood, and meat — anything humans value or enjoy, Tex will accept. It needs to be "fuelled up" before it wil go anywhere. Tex hates "punching through", traveling point to point on the mortal plane by way of skipping in and out of the other planes It's dangerous and requires a lot of cajoling — and it's one reason Tex spends a great deal of time in the garage, covered in candles and flowers. The only place Tex will go reliably is the Other Garden.
THE OTHER GARDEN: Raphael gets his most important healing plants from the remains of Eden — the Other Garden, to differentiate it from his garden on Earth. The plants are few and fickle but they allow people to have important visions, to be healed of various afflictions, and to even be revived from death if they are treated early enough. It can take years for Raphael to distill some of the serums.
- XOCHIPILLI: Raphael makes some of the finest LSD in the world, Xochipilli. The addition of an otherworldly sinicuichi from the Other Garden makes it a safe, euphoric, healing trip that alleviates the pains of withdrawal or PTSD.

AMNESIAC: Raphael doesn't know what he is and he doesn't remember what he used to do. He knows that he's been alive a long time, centuries, and has accumulated knowledge but he doesn't have memories. No loves, no losses, no learning, no idea whether anyone coming up on him in the dark is an enemy. It's usually an enemy. Because angels only need to fulfill their assigned purpose without wavering, for millennia, they don't usually remember things the way humans do or they'd go mad. If Raphael sees people regularly, he'll remember them but otherwise they begin to slip away. He does record people and his relationship to them in a ledger but he has gone through many over the years because he loses them.
ATHEISM: Raphael doesn't believe in God and has no faith to speak of. As such, he cannot even begin to find his way back to his own kind. If there is a 'God' out there, Raphael wants nothing to do with it. Lack of faith also leaves him with fewer traditional weapons against vampires and demons.
BAIT: Demons and angels are mortal enemies and demons will always hunt a weakened angel. Raphael has little access to any of his angellic abilities outside of healing and so he is a target for demonic interference. Vampires and other undead also loathe him and will seek him out.
CAST OUT: Other angels (including monotheistic Marvel angel types) have wings and flaming swords and the power to fly, among other gifts. Raphael has none of those. He has no one to call on: no bretheren and no divine assistance. His own kind, if they recognize him, will shun hin or refuse him aid.
INHUMAN: Raphael is not human and, while he is nurturing and merciful and can even sacrifice himself, he doesn't share human values or instincts. He can seem amoral, cruel, or arbitrary. Humans baffle him with their lack of purpose. He stands out as an eccentric and can be a target for abuse as a result. He's bad at understanding money, in spite of all his years on Earth he sees it as a weird custom he has to negotiate. There's just something wrong about him.

Marvel: 1963

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